


Long Slow Years

by Zwarte Parel (Celandine)



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Gen Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:19:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Zwarte%20Parel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will has plenty of time to think, now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Slow Years

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aome](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=aome).



> For aome, who wanted Will's thoughts while captaining.

One benefit -- one of the few -- to being the captain of the _Flying Dutchman_ was that it certainly gave a man time to think.

Not that he wasn't busy; he was. Since Davy Jones had failed to do his job for years, decades more like, there was an enormous backlog of souls to be ferried, and that on top of the newly dead arriving in a steady stream.

Will was grateful for the presence of his father and the other sailors who remained from Jones's crew, who knew what had to be done and taught him how to do it. Nevertheless once he got the hang of his duties, he could carry them out while still having a good part of his brain free to ponder.

In less than two years his entire world had been turned upside down. He'd gone from being a simple blacksmith's apprentice, to the husband-to-be of the governor's daughter, to a pirate captaining the ship of death. He would have preferred to stop at the second of those, but a man cannot always get what he wants, as his father had told him once.

Between this life -- in which he could see Elizabeth again in ten years -- and death, he would take this life. He missed Elizabeth constantly, but over the months it had become like the ache of a badly healed wound, an ongoing pain that could be mostly ignored, though it caused twinges from time to time.

Somewhat to his surprise he missed Jack nearly as much. Both Elizabeth and Jack were honorable in their own ways, yet highly unpredictable. Life had never been dull with either of them around.

And life on the _Flying Dutchman_ was dull. Busy, yes, but always the same, or nearly so. Perhaps that was for the best. Will had never especially wanted to lead others, and he was not all that comfortable with his new eminence. As the _Dutchman_ 's captain, though, he had relatively few significant decisions to make, so he turned to other matters.

Jones had amassed a fair collection of books and maps, and Will lay out for himself a program to improve his education. When he saw Elizabeth once more, she would not find him wanting.


End file.
